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THE SYRIA SALESMEN: The Obama administration today is sending three men who’ve voiced concerns in the past about the unintended consequences of war to sell a skeptical Congress on the need for military action against Syria. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Secretary of State John Kerry and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey are set to appear at 2:30 p.m. before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

THEIR MISSION isn’t to prove Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against his people, as most members of Congress appear to be on board with that assertion. Rather, it’s to persuade war-weary lawmakers it’s possible to inflict pain on Assad without getting entangled in a long and expensive military campaign — and that U.S. interests are at stake. There will be a live stream of the hearing here: http://1.usa.gov/1fuyyzj

TWO BIG QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWERED. The first is what exactly Congress will be voting on when — and if — it takes up a measure authorizing the use of force in Syria. Members of Congress balked at a proposal put forward by the White House that would have given President Barack Obama wide leeway to attack Syria however he deemed “necessary and appropriate.” Senate leaders are now crafting a revised resolution that’s expected to bar the use of ground troops in Syria and include a 60-day window for “narrow, limited” strikes. POLITICO’s John Bresnahan has more: http://politi.co/136Lrx5

The second question is how military strikes in Syria would be funded — and whether a military campaign could bolster efforts to undo sequestration next fiscal year. Already, defense hawks are using Syria as a bargaining chip in their fight to stop the automatic cuts to Pentagon spending. “We cannot keep asking the military to perform mission after mission with sequestration and military cuts hanging over their heads,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said on CNN yesterday.

Meanwhile, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee says he’s undeterred in his opposition to military strikes in Syria until there’s a clear plan to pay for them. “The president can’t guarantee that military intervention in Syria will be brief or even reduce the violence,” Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe said in a statement to Morning D. “But he has to make that promise because our forces under President Obama could not sustain another war.”

AND JOHN McCAIN SAYS HE STILL HASN’T MADE UP HIS MIND. The Arizona Republican emerged from an hour-long meeting with Obama yesterday saying it would be “catastrophic” if Congress rejected a use-of-force resolution. But the senator — whose support is vital to the White House’s efforts to get defense hawks on board — remains unconvinced the president has an effective strategy for attacking Syria. “I’m already talking to a lot of my colleagues, but before I can persuade them to support this, I have to be persuaded,” McCain said. http://politi.co/1e9Cckc

HAPPY SEPTEMBER AND WELCOME TO MORNING DEFENSE, where we’re back from a long Labor Day break that was anything but quiet. We’re offering congratulations this morning to Michael Amato, communications director for the HASC minority staff, on his recent engagement to Jessica Geller, an attorney at the Discovery Channel.

FOR YOUR RADAR: The president and vice president are scheduled to meet at 9:45 a.m. today in the Cabinet Room with members of Congress, according to the White House, and Syria will certainly be at the top of the agenda. Tomorrow, hearings on Syria are set to continue: Kerry and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper are scheduled to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at 9 a.m. for a top-secret hearing. And at noon, Kerry and Hagel are to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to sell the lower chamber on the need for action.

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SYRIA QUICK READS:

— What if Congress says no to a Syria resolution? POLITICO’s Philip Ewing asks this and four other questions ahead of today’s hearing: http://politi.co/17wcDHf

— Assad says a U.S. strike on his country could lead to regional war and would spread “chaos and extremism.” Fox News: http://fxn.ws/18n8vaK

— ICYMI: The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz has moved into the Red Sea, according to multiple news outlets, for “prudent positioning.” http://politi.co/174LrhZ

— More than 2 million refugees have now fled Syria for neighboring countries, according to the United Nations. The New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1cAVy05

IN NON-SYRIA NEWS …

OBAMA’S FORCING A SMALLER PAY RAISE FOR TROOPS: The president has notified Congress he plans to impose a 1-percent pay raise for service members next fiscal year, down from the 1.8 percent approved this summer by the House. The announcement, which came after 5 p.m. on the Friday before the holiday weekend, was the result of tough budget decisions, Obama said.“I have determined it is appropriate to exercise my authority under section 1009(e) of title 37, United States Code, to set the 2014 monthly basic pay increase at 1.0 percent,” he explained in a letter to Hill leaders.

Already, the announcement is drawing rebuke from defense advocates. “It’s almost paradoxical that the president’s decision to lower the congressionally required pay raise for our men and women in uniform comes at the very time he is considering ill-advised military action in Syria without congressional authorization,” said Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), who chairs HASC’s Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces.

BUDGET BLUES — SOURCES SAY DoD WANTS TO BUY JUST 24 LITTORAL COMBAT SHIPS, via Christopher P. Cavas of Defense News: “The office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) reportedly supports the idea of limiting total purchases of littoral combat ships to only 24, far short of the US Navy’s goal of 52 ships, sources have told Defense News. Stopping at 24 ships would end LCS procurement with the fiscal 2015 budget.

“The Navy, according to sources, is countering with proposals for higher numbers, but strongly advocates going no lower than 32 ships — a number that would continue production another one or two years.” http://bit.ly/17kGm1q

BLACK BUDGET SHOWS DISTRUST OF PAKISTAN, via The Washington Post’s Greg Miller, Craig Whitlock and Barton Gellman: “The $52.6 billion U.S. intelligence arsenal is aimed mainly at unambiguous adversaries, including al-Qaeda, North Korea and Iran. But top-secret budget documents reveal an equally intense focus on one purported ally: Pakistan. No other nation draws as much scrutiny across so many categories of national security concern.

“A 178-page summary of the U.S. intelligence community’s ‘black budget’ shows that the United States has ramped up its surveillance of Pakistan’s nuclear arms, cites previously undisclosed concerns about biological and chemical sites there, and details efforts to assess the loyalties of counter­terrorism sources recruited by the CIA.” http://wapo.st/17vEEyu

TOP TALKER — NAVAL ACADEMY RAPE CASE CONTINUES, via WaPo’s Dana Hedgpeth: “Ten midshipmen testified Monday in the case of a woman who said she was raped at a Naval Academy party last year, giving often-conflicting but mostly damning accounts as to how intoxicated the accuser was and her level of awareness about what had happened to her when she later recounted events to them. … The case comes as the military is in the spotlight over how it deals with sexual harassment.” http://wapo.st/17z9F2P

THAT’S ALL FOR US. Have a great Tuesday.

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